that nothing maim'd or imperfect should be prefented unto God, nor any one admitted to the Priesthood, or allowed to ftand before him, that had any corporal Blemish or Defect. For the fame Reafon, ftrict Caution is given to all Chriftian Bishops, not to lay Hands fuddenly on 1 Tim. v. any; and, in the primitive Times, Prohibitions 22. were made, that no Perfons difmember'd, or any way disfigur'd; no Slave or Soldier, no Broker or Ufurer, or any of a fordid and plebeian Genius, fhould receive Ordination. And, for the fame Reason, fuch as are intrusted with the Power of Admiffion ftill, fhould certainly be well advis'd, and not fuffer themfelves to be impos'd upon by the warmeft Recommendations. Not only the Life and Converfation of the Candidate, but his good Temper and Disposition of Mind, his Spirit and Generofity, his natural and acquir'd Abilities, his Knowledge of Men, Manners, and Books, nay, the very Decency of his Carriage, and Comeliness of his Perfon, ought to be fome Part of their Confideration : For it is a Shame to fend into the Service of Almighty God, fuch awkard and diftorted Things, as would be ridiculous in any other Occupation; and to commiffion fuch Men to officiate in religious Myfteries, as have lefs Learning and Knowledge than your Lordship would require in a Secretary, or lefs Honour and Honefty than you hope to find in a Steward.

2. ANOTHER Reafon that the Scripture gives for the Refpect and Veneration that is due to the Minifters of Chrift, is the Dignity and Awfulness of their Offices and Adminiftrations. I have before me now that excellent Piece of St. Chryfoftom de Sacerdotio, published by the learned and ingenious Mr. Hughes, as a Name

of

of very * great Authority calls him: But, as

learned as he was, because he died in the Condition of a Curate, your great Divines were all afleep, and no Body was found to preach his Funeral Sermon, but poor Tom Shallow. Shallow, you must know, my Lord, has no great Knack at fermonizing, and was therefore forc'd to have Recourse to a Friend, who run him fome hafty Thing off at one Heat, juft fuited to his low Capacity, and fet to the Tune wherein he preaches; but never dreaming he meant to make it publick, or to injure the Memory of so great a Man, by fo vile a Composition. That Fault, however, we must forgive him, because he affures me, 'tis the firft and the laft Time he ever intends to be an Author, and only send him this Admonition for the future:

† Privatas ut quærat opes, & fcripta remittat
Mutua, quæ roftro toties recitavit ab alto;
Ne fi forte fuas repetitum venerit olim
Grex avium plumas, moveat cornicula rifum,
Furtivis nudata coloribus ----

To return to St. Chryfoftom, and fome of his lofty Sentiments about the Matter of Sacerdotal Powers and Administrations.

" WHEN you fee the Sacrificeof Christ's Body, fays he, the Prieft ftanding over it, and pour"ing out Prayers, and the People around him washing and purifying themfelves in his most precious Blood; when you fee him calling. "down the Holy Ghoft upon the Sacrifice, that "his manifold Grace may diffuse itself, and en

*Bishop of Rochefter, in his Preface to his Sermon before the Sons of the Clergy.

Hor. Ep. Lib. I. Ep. 3.

+ Libro 3. paffim.

"ter into the Heart of every faithful Commu"nicant; when you hear that all Power both in "Heaven and Earth given to Chrift, he has repos'd in the Hands of his Minifters, and left it upon Record, that whatsoever they bind on Earth, fhall be bound in Heaven; and "whatfoever they loofe on Earth, fhall be loofed Mat.xvi, "in Heaven; a larger Power than either Angels 19. or Archangels have to boaft of how can

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sc you think, but that the Perfons by whose "Hands thefe Myfteries are tranfacted, by "whose Invocation Chrift defcends myftically, by whose Benediction the Holy Ghoft is given, and by whofe Sentence Mens Sins are retain'd "or remitted unto them; fhould be follow'd and "rever'd with a fort of awful Efteem and facred "Veneration? Except ye be born of Water and John iii. s. "the Holy Ghoft, except ye eat the Flesh of the "Son of Man, and drink his Blood, ye cannot John vi, "inherit the Kingdom of Heaven: And yet thefe 53. are Bleffings that cannot be convey'd to us, "but by the Mediation of God's Minifters; "for to them only is committed the Laver of "Regeneration, and the fprinkling of the Blood of God. As much therefore as Regeneration " is more defirable than Birth, and an happy "Eternity than a fhort uncertain Life; fo much "fhould our Love and Eftimation of our ghoftly Fathers exceed if poffible what we owe to our natural Parents, &c."

c

*

HOWEVER this Father may be fuppos'd to have minded his Oratory more than ftrict Truth, and to carry the Pretenfions of the Priesthood a little too high, for that I fhall not answer. The Offices he infifts on are certainly common facer

* Vid. Stillingfleet of the Duties and Rights of the Par. Clergy, P. 116.

dotal

17, 18.

dotal Offices, and fuch as every one that is admitted to that Order has a Right to adminifter: The Honour and Refpect that accrues from fuch Adminiftrations then, is common to all, and no more one Man's Right than another's. Riches and Poverty make no Difference in this Cafe; the Curate that tramps it on Foot, and the Rector that rides in his eafy Chariot, & nos defpicit illinc, are Men of the fame Power and Authority when they meet at Church, and are in the Work of their proper Calling, whether it be in the Desk, or in the Pulpit, at the Font, or at the Altar of God.

So far then as we are all Minifters of Christ, and Stewards of the Mysteries of God, we stand upon the fame Level, and have an equal Right to the fame Obfervance and Refpect. But then, that which makes the Difference, and sets one Man in a more honourable and advantageous Light than another (I speak still as a Minister of Chrift) is,

3. His more abundant Labour and Diligence 1 Tim. v. in his Calling: For the Apoftolical Order is this, Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double Honour; efpecially they that labour in the Word and Doctrine: For the Scripture faith, Thou shall not muzzle the Ox that treadeth out the Corn, and the Labourer is worthy of his Reward. That this Rule most certainly extends, if not primarily belongs, to the Priests of the fecond Order, is a Point that cannot be denied; and if fo, 'tis by this Rule that we defire to have it tried, whether the Incumbents, as they are call'd, or those that are their Curates, deferve more Honour and a better Recompence of Reward, i. e. whether thofe that fee not. their Parifhes above once in a Quarter, and perhaps that too with a View to the Profits more than the Souls of them; that

think

:

think a Sermon now and then of their own an Equivalent for fome Hundreds of Pounds, but an Hundred of another's out-rated at Thirty; that bear off their Revenues to spend in other Places, while the Poor, the Widow and Fatherlefs are to fhift for themselves as well as they can; leave all the heavy parochial Duties to the Labour and Sweat of a jaded Journeyman, except when a Ring and Scarf, or fome bleffed Baptifmal Guinea appears, to clear up their Eye-fight, and make them read over a long-neglected Office In a Word, whether those that live like Strangers to their Flocks, neither know them, nor are known by them, nor are follicitous what becomes of them, fo long as they feed them- Ezek. felves with the Fat, and cloath themselves with xxxiv. 3 theWool,are Paftors according to God's Heart, and deferve the Commendation and Emoluments of Clergymen; or thofe, that obliging themselves to continued Refidence, fuftain the whole Burden and Heat of the Day; that, having a large Parish to infpect, are inftant in Seafon 2 Tim. iv. and out of Seafon, to reprove, rebuke, and ex- 2. hort with all Long-Suffering and Doctrine; that in Labours are abundant, in Cares above Mea- 2 Cor. xi. fure, in Watchings often, to behave themselves 23. decently in the Houfe of God every SabbathDay, and to teach from Houfe to House, and attend the Calls and Exigencies of every one's Soul all the Week following; and, laftly, that with no more than a fmall precarious Stipend allowed them, have the Conflict of Poverty added to the Weight of their Employment, and fo muft in all things approve themselves the Minif-2 Cor. vi ters of God in Patience, in Afflictions, in Ne- 4. ceffities, in Diftreffes.

WHETHER of thefe, (and this I think is the common Cafe, where the Minifter is abfent,

and